"It's very simple. Our people risked their lives.
Friendly coalition folks risked their lives, and
therefore the contracting is going to reflect
that, and that's what the U.S. taxpayers expect,"
President Bush
said.
“In the past nine presidential elections
(1968-2000), the 11 states of the former
Confederacy, plus Kentucky and Oklahoma, have
awarded 1,385 electoral votes. Democratic
candidates have won just 270 (20 percent) of them.
Which Deanisms -- the war is bad, same-sex civil
unions are good, Americans are undertaxed -- will
be most helpful to Democrats down there?”
– George Will writes.
"I think Bubba loves his guns and hates NAFTA a
lot more than he dislikes gays,"
said David "Mudcat"
Saunders, a former rural strategist for Edwards
and Sen. Bob Graham of Florida.
Morning
"We are under no illusion
that (the law) will be the last congressional
statement on the matter. Money, like water, will
always find an outlet. What problems will arise
and how Congress will respond are concerns for
another day,"
Sandra O'Connor and Paul Stevens wrote in their
opinion on McCain-Fiengold.
His base is a very
interesting base,"
Rep. Robert
Matsui, chair of the Democrats' House campaign
committee said. "He will bring out a lot of
new voters."
"There are perfectly good
reasons to discriminate between those who are very
helpful and those who are less helpful,"
Zbigniew
Brzezinski said. "But why rub it in with a
political announcement that will further diminish
the probability of serious European participation
with men and money in the effort to
internationalize the Iraqi conundrum?"
"I think the great
missing story of this campaign is in fact the
truth about Howard Dean's statements about the
war," Kerry
said. "I don't know which judgment Al Gore
endorsed yesterday."
"I want the American
people to see where media takes politics in this
country. We start talking about endorsements, now
we're talking about polls and then talking about
money. When you do that you don't have to talk
about what's important to the American people,"
said Dennis
Kucinich.
Just
Politics: * Bush support * George Will’s
questions
Morning
Dennis Kucinich:
*Kucinich’s date *The winnowing begins
*Kucinich’s parties
Howard Dean: *No two
for the price of one
Dick Gephardt:
*Gephardt gets the prize
Wesley Clark: Clark
– Young endorsement *Clark on Haliburton
John Edwards:
*Edwards: investigate China’s currency
*Edwards: reform contracting
The Polls: *Poll
watching
Evening
Dean’s perfect storm
Howard Dean is trying to
engineer "The Perfect Storm: Powered by People."
Dean’s campaign is planning to flood Iowa with
volunteers to knock on more than 200,000 doors and
call more than 50,000 people to rally support for
Dean in Iowa's leadoff precinct caucuses on Jan.
19. The campaign expects more than 3,500 people
from 47 states have already signed up — and they
hope to have 5,000 — for the four weekend sweeps
leading up to the caucuses. Most will stay at
winterized camps, including Girl Scout camps,
while other volunteers in Iowa will be asked to
host the out-of-towners.
"People on this campaign ... understand that if
they send the governor out of here with a bang
he'll go far," Jeanie Murray, Dean's Iowa campaign
director, said during a conference call with
reporters.
Dean’s Enron TV ad
Dean is airing an ad in South
Carolina and New Mexico this week. Dean stresses
that, "George Bush is doing to our economy what
Enron's executives did to their company. The
president's friends get all the benefits, and we
pay all the bills."
Dean is a hawk
The
LA Times reports that Dean’s dove image
doesn’t correspond to his answers on defense
reported in the Times:
Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean,
known to many voters as a staunch opponent of the
Iraq war, enthusiastically supports missile
defense development and declines to back a
proposal to ban weapons in space.
Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, a Dean rival
for the nomination who voted last year to support
the U.S. invasion of Iraq, flatly opposes the Bush
administration's controversial plans to begin
deployment of a missile defense system in Alaska
and supports a multilateral ban on space weaponry.
Flying a different sky
Newsweek this week reports that
Dean stopped using a corporate jet loaned by
Leucadia National Corp. when his campaign was told
(by Newsweek) the diverse holding company was
based in Bermuda and taking advantage of that
nasty tax loophole Dean so often rails about.
Dean’s fiscal conservativism
There is some doubt about Howard
Dean’s fiscal conservatism. Dean likes to portray
his time as Governor of Vermont as a 'fiscal
conservative who cut state income taxes — twice.'
However, it seems that at least one of those
Vermont state tax cuts — the largest of the two —
was signed into law by his Republican predecessor.
Then, too, while the Dean folks like to talk about
how they got rid of the sales tax on clothing, the
Boston Globe notes that under Dean’s
administration the overall sales tax actually went
up."
Jackson’s endorsement?
Jessie Jackson, Sr. provided
praise for Howard Dean in a speech about what
Blacks need in their next President. At an Urban
Issues Breakfast Forum in California but did not
endorse Dean. Jackson’s son has already endorsed
Dean.
Gephardt’s S. Carolina TV ad
Rep. Jim Clyburn, an influential
South Carolina lawmaker who has endorsed Dick
Gephardt, is in a 30-second ad that will run
statewide. Clyburn says Gephardt "will be a
president South Carolina can count on" and that he
has witnessed Gephardt's "concern and commitment
up close."
"As Democratic leader, he fought for Clinton's
economic plan that helped create 22 million jobs.
Together, we stood up for middle-class families
against NAFTA and the China Trade Deal," Clyburn
says.
Special interest “feeding frenzy"
Sen. John Kerry is going up with
another new TV ad in Iowa that will expose
President Bush’s special interest feeding frenzy.
Kerry says in the ad that he will "stand up to the
drug companies to lower the cost of prescriptions,
take on the insurance industry to finally get
health care reform, and break the grip of big oil
to make America energy independent."
At the scene of the accident
Rep. Charles Rangel and Wesley
Clark cited his record of supporting affirmative
action in the armed forces at a rally in Harlem on
Thursday as evidence that he deserves the support
of black voters. The two were at the site of the
Al Gore endorsement of Howard Dean. The rally was
used by Rangel, a Korean War veteran who for
months has backed Clark in the Democratic contest,
to officially endorse Clark. It was also an
opportunity for Rangel to stick Dean and Gore
about coming into his district for their
announcement:
"What I did hear was, that Dean and Gore told the
cabbie to 'take us to Harvard,' and he dropped
them off in Harlem instead," Rangel said.
Edwards’ new idea
The Boston Globe, readying for
their endorsement of a candidate prior to New
Hampshire primary, interviewed candidate John
Edwards and reports that Edwards wants a Domestic
Intelligence Agency:
With foreign policy on the national agenda,
Edwards revealed that two key Clinton
administration officials, Richard Holbrooke, once
US ambassador to the United Nations, and Samuel
Berger, Clinton's last national security adviser,
have been unofficially tutoring him on
international affairs. He proposed a Domestic
Intelligence Agency to spy on suspected terrorists
living in the United States, a task now left to
the FBI.
"The
FBI is structurally incapable of doing their job,"
he said, adding that he would also create a civil
rights watchdog agency to keep tabs on all
domestic investigations.
Bush support
Grassfire.org Alliance is airing
a minimum number of ads in Iowa that are titled,
“Tell the Truth.” The ad does a better job of
explaining the Iraq war and the need to support
our troops than the Republican National
Committee’s recent ad. The organization states
that it is in response to MoveOn.org. Their
website is at
Grassfire.net and you can watch the commercial
there.
The thirty second spot features
pictures of our soldiers in combat. It explains
that Sadam Hussein regime tortured, raped, and
hung children in front of their parents. It asks
Americans to support President Bush and our
soldiers from the media attacks.
George Will’s questions
George Will’s
column has some interesting questions for
Democrats and is a good read. Here is one:
Although unemployment declined in November for the
fourth consecutive month, Democrats say job
creation is alarming because it is slow relative
to the economy's growth. But Fortune magazine
reports that although manufacturing jobs have
declined 16 percent since the summer of 2000,
"factories are producing more than they ever
have." Over the past two decades steel production
has increased from 75 million tons in 1982 to 102
million tons in 2002 -- but whereas 289,000
workers were required to produce the 75 million
tons, just 74,000 workers produced the 102
million. Do Democrats believe this increased
productivity is an economic misfortune?
Morning
Kucinich’s date
Dennis Kucinich is taking his
date to breakfast. Gina Marie Santore said she's a
lifelong Democrat and is looking forward to
meeting Kucinich for breakfast Thursday at an
undisclosed location in Concord. Kucinich caused
the launching of an election on PoliticsNH.com
when he referenced the fact that he was single and
outlined his perfect date and , “if you are out
there? Call me.”
Santore, 34, of Maple Shade,
N.J., said she works as a confidential aide to the
Garden County sheriff in southern New Jersey.
Santore said Kucinich called her to arrange the
date, and he was "very kind, very gentle." She
said she's attracted to Kucinich, 57, because she
finds his views "intoxicating."
"I hope that he's fun," Santore
said. "I hope there's a lighter side to him."
On Satore's website appears the
following quote: "There is a saying behind every
successful man, there is a strong woman." Satore
is not a vegan. Kucinich is and has emphasized the
fact in his campaign. "I'm not a vegetarian, and I
have no problem with someone else who is," Satore
said. "He may be a vegan, but as long as he
drinks, it's OK."
The winnowing begins
Dennis Kucinich campaign reports
the day after Kucinich took ABC debate moderator
Ted Koppel to task for avoiding questions that
would be useful to voters in favor of questions
about endorsements, money, and polls, ABC pulled
its fulltime "embedded" reporter from the Kucinich
campaign. The reporter had been given no warning
that such a move was coming. She had discussed at
length yesterday with the Kucinich campaign staff
her plans and her needs for the coming months. ABC
has reportedly also pulled its reporters from
covering the presidential campaigns of Rev. Al
Sharpton and Ambassador Carol Mosley-Braun.
Kucinich claimed it was another
example of his criticism at the debate, namely the
media trying to pick candidates, rather than
letting the voters do so. In a democracy, it
should be voters and not pundits or TV networks
who narrow the field of candidates. Kucinich
offered that the move, before any state's caucus
or primary, appears based on a belief that viable
candidates can be predicted 11 months prior to an
election, a belief that flies in the face of the
historical record. Time and again candidates
dismissed as "fringe" have wound up either with
the nomination or with a significant impact on the
convention and in the primaries.
“This action by ABC, as well as Koppel's comments
during the debate, can only serve to disempower
Americans, communicating to them that someone
other than they is deciding elections and that
their votes don't mean much.
“This action also seems to conflict with the
network's interest in boosting ratings and
Koppel's expressed interest in making the debate
exciting, given that Kucinich received the loudest
applause of the evening.
“ABC presumably has no vested interest in
discouraging voting or in lowering its ratings. It
may, however, have an interest in whether Koppel's
prediction of the viability of various candidacies
proves true,” Kucinich release concludes.
Kucinich’s parties
Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader
took turns standing on a chair addressing an
after-debate party in a University of New
Hampshire campus pub. The pub was filled to
capacity, with a line of people outside waiting
for the chance to get in should someone leave.
While at the after-party, Dennis placed call to a
speakerphone at another campaign event in Chicago,
which was being led by Dr. Patch Adams and by the
Kucinich supporters who are walking from the
Atlantic to the Pacific for Peace. The
enthusiastic Chicago crowd cheered so loudly that
they could be heard above the noise in the packed
New Hampshire campus pub.
No two for the price of one
The
Des Moines Register has a rare interview with
Howard Dean’s wife, Judy Steinberg Dean, M.D. The
story shares that while no candidate is offering
the famous "two for the price of one" partnership
like Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1992, it is
definitely true about the Deans. The story is
actually inaccurate because early on Sen. John
Kerry issued that statement. However, we have not
heard it of late.
The Register covers Judy’s
immersion in her practice and family. She is in
practice with two other physicians. She sees many
elderly patients and works 40 to 50 hours a week,
including house calls and paperwork. At home, she
likes to read, bike, swim for exercise and attend
her son's school events. The story portrays Judy’s
disinterest in politics in the interview -- even
the account of Dean’s decision to run projects
that image:
"He didn't ask me whether he should run or not,
because that's not something I really think about,
whether it's a good idea for him to run," she
said. "We did discuss how it would affect the
family and whether we could handle it or not."
Gephardt gets the prize
Dick Gephardt may not have
received Al Gores endorsement, but he received the
most influential Black endorsement in the state of
S. Carolina that you could have. Rep. Jim Clyburn
made it official in a conference call with Rep.
Dick Gephardt yesterday. The
Associated Press reported:
"I would not be honest with you if I didn't tell
you that Dick Gephardt was always number one in my
heart," Clyburn said Wednesday in a conference
call with Gephardt. "I found nothing thus far in a
campaign to move him from that spot."
What’s more Gephardt is getting
someone who is going to work for him: Beginning
this weekend with a tour of South Carolina,
Clyburn said he would devote as much time as
possible to Gephardt's campaign.
"I'm not going out here to support Dick Gephardt
in the black community, I'm going out to support
Dick Gephardt among Democratic voters all over
this state," Clyburn said.
Former South Carolina Gov. Jim
Hodges, who has endorsed Wesley Clark, doesn’t
think the endorsement means much:
"I think both (Clyburn) and I recognize at the end
of the day, the strength of the horse we ride is
what's most important," Hodges said in a
conference call Wednesday on Clark's chances in
the South.
Part of Hodges opinion could be
coming from the fact he lost to a Republican
recently.
Clark – Young endorsement
It is the week for the
endorsement game. Civil Rights activist Ambassador
Andrew Young is likely to endorse Clark today when
the two are in S. Carolina. According to the
Associated Press spokesman for Clark made the
following statement:
Clark campaign spokesman Chris Lehane called Young
"a man of impeccable credentials, a statesman, a
pioneer, an advocate for economic opportunity.
Simply put his life is a great American story and
General Clark will be with him on Dec. 21. But
beyond that, we can't comment on what we're going
to discuss."
Clark on Haliburton
Today, General Wesley Clark
said, "I'm one of those people who doesn't believe
in occupying countries to extract their natural
resources. I think you buy them on the world
market. We need a success strategy for Iraq that
will end the American occupation by putting an
international organization in place, have United
States forces report through NATO, and work to
turn this problem back to the Iraqis."
Clark Advisor Chris Lehane
added, "George W. Bush's rewarding of campaign
contributor Halliburton makes it clear for all to
see that he is of big oil, for big oil, and 'buy'
big oil. At the end of the day, he's putting the
special interests before our national interests.
General Clark is campaigning on a New American
Patriotism to put the national interests before
the special interests.
Edwards: investigate China’s currency
"Enough is enough. We've lost
over 2 million manufacturing jobs and President
Bush still won't lift a finger to help American
workers. It's long past time to stand up to
China's abusive trade practices that are costing
us jobs," Sen. John Edwards said in response to
the Bush administration stating it would not
formally investigate China for currency
manipulation.
China is manipulating the value
of the yuan to give its industry added advantage.
This unfair trade practice distorts exchange
rates, giving Chinese goods an artificial price
advantage of up to 40 percent over U.S. products.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is running over a $100 billion
trade deficit with China, the largest in history
between any two countries.
In a Senate hearing yesterday,
an administration trade official ruled out
launching a formal investigation of China's
currency manipulation. The official said that
action under Section 301 of the Trade Act was not
warranted. Edwards believes that the U.S.
government should immediately use its legal rights
under both Section 301 and through the World Trade
Organization.
Edwards: reform contracting
At a town hall meeting at the
Merrimack Restaurant in Manchester, Edwards
proposed a series of reforms to get politics out
of contracting:
* First, he would block political donations from
government contractors. Under his proposal,
corporations, senior executives, lobbyists and
directors would be barred from making donations to
presidential candidates and political parties for
one year before or after bidding on a major
government contract.
* Second, Edwards would break the link between
government procurement and private sector
contracting jobs. Private sector executives
seeking government contracts would not be able to
take official contracting jobs for 12 months, and
similarly, those with responsibility for
contracting would not be able to go to firms
seeking contracts for 12 months.
* Third, Edwards outlined steps to require that
Washington demand corporate responsibility from
its private-sector contractors. As president, he
would sign an executive order to force federal
contractors to pay their executives responsibly
and to fully disclose their top executives' pay,
including perks and stock options. "CEOs should
not receive a raise when companies are laying off
workers and stocks are falling."
* Fourth, Edwards proposed strong new disclosure
requirements for contractors lobbying the
government. Today, lobbyists for government
contractors disclose their clients only once every
six months and do not have to reveal the
politicians they meet with, the issues they
discuss or how they spend their money. Edwards
would require lobbyists to report these details
every two weeks on the Internet. This will shine a
bright light on the backroom meetings and secret
favors that too often influence government
contracts.
* Finally, Edwards proposed measures to stop
profiteering off government contracts in Iraq. The
Bush administration signed no-bid contracts for
Iraqi reconstruction with Halliburton and Bechtel
that cost taxpayers billions. Edwards will stop
profiteering by permitting companies only to get a
reasonable profit on their Iraq contracts. This is
similar to excess profit caps imposed during both
World Wars. Edwards will also take back ill-gotten
gains by ordering a top-to-bottom review to
identify mismanagement and profiteering, similar
to the Truman Commission during World War II.
Poll watching
National
A Quinnipiac University poll
conducted a few days before Gore's announcement
showed Dean the choice of 22 percent of registered
Democrats, up from 9 percent in an October survey.
Sen. Joe Lieberman’s support held steady at 13
percent. Wesley Clark went from 17 percent to 12
percent. Sen. John Kerry went from 10 percent to 8
percent and Rep. Dick Gephardt went from 12
percent to 9 percent. Al Sharpton's support went
from 5 percent to 8 percent.
Evening
Bush Defends Contracts
"International law? I better
call my lawyer," President Bush said.
That was President Bush’s
response to a question about German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder statement that the awarding of
contracts must apply to international law. Bush’s
response demonstrates the great divide between
international idealist and those who believe in
national real politics. Most all of the Democrat
candidates have fallen into the international
idealist. Bush stated his belief in understandable
terms:
"If these countries want to participate in helping
the world become more secure, by enabling Iraq to
emerge as a free and peaceful country, one way to
contribute is through debt restructuring," Bush
said.
Bush explained that helping
reduce Iraq's estimated $120 billion foreign debts
will not mean that those nations can compete for
the $18.6 billion. U.S. officials said the
decision applied only to the $18.6 billion in
reconstruction funds approved by the U.S. Congress
last month. $13 billion in international aid
pledged at a recent donors conference in Madrid
was eligible for broader international
participation. Companies from countries not
directly involved in Iraq's postwar reconstruction
can also act as subcontractors if selected by
those eligible to seek contracts under the U.S.
fund.
Bushies think it’s Dean
The New York Times reports on
how the Bush-Cheney team is gearing up for Howard
Dean. The Bush team sees Dean as one of the easier
candidates to run against according to the
article. They however are studying the insurgent
campaigns of the past to see how best to deal with
his candidacy according to the Times article:
But the Republican National Committee and the Bush
campaign are intensively reviewing their
opposition research on Dr. Dean. The party is
conducting polling not just on how Mr. Bush would
match up against Dr. Dean but also on what effects
Dr. Dean, as his party's presidential nominee,
would have on other races, especially for Senate
seats.
Republican inside and outside the campaign are
studying parallels between Dr. Dean's candidacy
and other insurgent campaigns, including those of
Senator Eugene McCarthy in 1968 and of Senator
John McCain of Arizona, who nearly derailed Mr.
Bush's march to the Republican nomination in 2000.
The
Washington Post article expresses more
cautionary vibes coming from some quarters of the
Bush-Cheney camp. Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi
offers reasons why the game is changing if it is
Dean:
"Every decision that we've made, from the
beginning, was to build a campaign that could
defeat George Bush and win the nomination," Trippi
said. "Their whole theory has been to excite their
base and depress the Democratic base. They haven't
planned for a Democratic base that is so
energized."
However, the Dean campaign still
continues to have one major flaw -- Dean. Many
believe that Dean will still be his own weapon of
self destruction for his campaign:
One longtime Republican operative conjured his
idea of Dean in debates. "He'd be like Jack
Nicholson in 'A Few Good Men,' " the operative
said. "When he's being questioned, he gets redder
and redder, like his head is exploding, and then
he blurts out, 'You can't handle the truth.' Dean
is just exactly like that. I see it written all
over him."
Morning
Bid flap
The White House announced that
it helps their friends and opened up a rift with
France, Germany and Russia as well as all of those
who have called for the so called
“Internationlization of Iraq”.
"Prime contracts for reconstruction funded by U.S.
taxpayer dollars should go to the Iraqi people and
those countries who are working with the United
States on the difficult task of helping to build a
free, democratic and prosperous Iraq," White House
spokesman Scott McClellan said.
The directive from Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, dated Friday and
posted on a Pentagon Web site Tuesday, limits
bidders to firms from the United States, Iraq,
their coalition partners and other countries which
have sent troops to Iraq. It says restricting
contract bids "is necessary for the protection of
the essential security interests of the United
States." Several times this year, Secretary of
State Colin Powell cautioned that countries that
did not assist in Iraq's liberation from Saddam
Hussein could not expect to be rewarded.
Evening
'Twist of the
knife'
"
